bacchanalize

English

Alternative forms

• bacchanalise

Etymology

From bacchanal +‎ -ize.

Verb

bacchanalize (third-person singular simple present bacchanalizes, present participle bacchanalizing, simple past and past participle bacchanalized)

1. (intransitive) To behave as if at a bacchanal; to revel riotously.
   • 1927, The Death of Ii Tairo, page 193:

     Then we begin our free and easy party. Let us bacchanalize to the limit.

   • 1952, Francis Xavier Murphy, A Monument to Saint Jerome:

     I know that a certain man [St. Ambrose of Milan] has narrated the history of the Goths, who have been recently bacchanalizing in our lands, as of Gog and Magog, thus characterizing them by their present activities, and as they are referred to in Ezechiel.

   • 2003, Alexander Akishin, In the Valley of Armageddon:

     We three could bacchanalize a little. But Jennifer mustn't know about it.

2. (transitive) To make riotous and wild.
   • 1888, Victor Hugo, Romances - Volume 4, page 64:

     Imagine if you can the “ battle ” of Salvator Rosa bacchanalized.

   • 1923, Walter Sydney Sichel, The sands of time: recollections and reflections, page 239:

     To love life and to bacchanalize living are two separate instincts.

   • 2017, Michele Currie Navakas, Liquid Landscape:

     Yet Stowe so luxuriates in the swamp's productivity that it is impossible to believe she feels conflicted about nature bacchanalized.